Visitor directory
Sequatchie County directory
Dunlap’s coke-oven ruins and coal-mining museum at the foot of the Cumberland Plateau, a stretch of the Trail of Tears on the old Hill Road, the 1911 courthouse on Cherry Street and the hang-gliding launch atop Walden Ridge at Henson Gap, all in the middle of the Sequatchie Valley — on Central time, an hour behind Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Cities: Dunlap (county seat)
Communities: Cagle · Daus · Fredonia · Lone Oak · Mount Airy
Official tourism, parks & attractions
Tourism
- Sequatchie County/Dunlap Chamber of Commerce ↗15643 Rankin Ave, Dunlap · (423) 949-7608 · Mon–Fri 9 AM–4 PM CT · visitor information, the community events calendar (including the Historic Dunlap Cruise-Ins) and a member directory of places to stay, eat and shop.
Parks & outdoors
- Coops Creek Commons, Greenway & Harris Park (Dunlap) ↗Downtown Dunlap · Coops Creek Commons (287 Pine St), the 17-plus-acre home of BTC Fiber Valley Fest on the first weekend of May, has nine holes of disc golf, a stage, picnic pavilions, a waterwheel and a covered bridge on an old railroad trestle across Coops Creek to the Coops Creek Greenway, plus a ¾-mile walking loop · a Storybook Trail opened on the greenway in August 2026 · Harris Park has a summer splash pad · Commons use: Valley Fest, Inc., (423) 949-3883.
Attractions
- Henson Gap hang gliding launch (Tennessee Tree Toppers) ↗On Walden Ridge east of Dunlap (Window Rock Rd), above the Sequatchie Valley · the Tennessee Tree Toppers, a nonprofit club of hang gliding and paragliding pilots and a chapter of the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, keep the launch and a landing zone off Henson Gap Rd · visiting pilots need USHPA and club membership and a site briefing before a first flight; the club site has the Henson Gap weather station and site rules.
Museums & history
- Dunlap Coke Ovens Park & Museum ↗About ¾ mile west of downtown Dunlap — turn west on Cherry St at the downtown light and follow the brown Coke Ovens signs · the stone-and-brick ruins of 268 beehive ovens that turned Fredonia Mountain coal into coke for the iron and steel foundries of Chattanooga from the early 1900s until the mines closed in the 1920s; on the National Register since 1985 · the museum is a full-size rebuild of the 1902 company commissary, run by Sequatchie Valley Historical Association volunteers, with mining photographs, artifacts and a local-history room · park open daily sunup to sundown, free; museum April–November, Sat 10 AM–4 PM CT and Sun noon–4 PM CT (free; donations welcome) · group tours by appointment, (423) 949-2156 · no pets; the steep climb up the old incline toward Fredonia Mountain is not recommended in summer.
- Trail of Tears — Hill Road at the Cumberland Plateau (National Register) ↗At Coke Ovens Park · in November 1838 a Cherokee removal detachment of about 1,000 people led by Richard Taylor camped here before climbing out of the valley on the old Hill Road, one of the first wagon roads across the plateau; the missionary Daniel Butrick, traveling with them, kept a diary of the journey · a short marked section climbs from the park’s amphitheater (green “T.T.” blazes on the trees) to a gravel road; beyond it the route crosses private land · on the National Register since 2005.
- Sequatchie County Courthouse (National Register) ↗22 Cherry St, downtown Dunlap · a Colonial Revival courthouse built in 1911 by W. K. Brown and Brothers, the firm also credited with Pikeville’s 1909 Bledsoe County courthouse; on the National Register since 1980 · also on the Register in Dunlap: the Dunlap Community Building at Cherry St and Rankin Ave, built by National Youth Administration crews in the New Deal years, and the Douglas Coal and Coke Company Clubhouse · county offices Mon–Thu 7:30 AM–4:30 PM CT, shorter hours Friday morning.
Government
- Sequatchie County government ↗County Executive’s Office, Sequatchie County Courthouse, 22 Cherry St, Dunlap · (423) 949-3479 · Mon–Thu 7:30 AM–4:30 PM CT, shorter hours Friday morning · emergency alerts: text JOIN SEQNOTIFY to 31002 · County Commission agendas and meeting notices are posted on the county site.
- City of Dunlap (county seat) ↗Municipal Building, 15595 Rankin Ave · (423) 949-2115 · Mon–Fri 7 AM–4 PM CT · city water, sewer and natural gas, Harris Park reservations and city meetings.
- Sequatchie County Public Library ↗227 Cherry St, Dunlap · (423) 949-2357 · Mon 8 AM–7 PM CT, Tue and Wed 8 AM–6 PM CT, Fri 8 AM–5 PM CT; closed Thu and weekends · story times and family programs (state library directory).
Local resources
- Emergency (police · fire · EMS)911Call 911 for any emergency.
- Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office(423) 949-7750351 Fredonia Rd, Dunlap · non-emergency dispatch (Sequatchie County 9-1-1) (423) 949-9912 · Sheriff Bill Phillips ⓘ source
- Erlanger Sequatchie Valley Emergency Department(423) 949-200016931 Rankin Ave, Dunlap · emergency department · for emergencies call 911 ⓘ source
- Sequatchie County Health Department(423) 949-361916939 Rankin Ave N, Dunlap · Mon–Fri 8 AM–4:30 PM CT · Tennessee Department of Health ⓘ source
- Sequatchie County Executive’s Office(423) 949-3479Courthouse, 22 Cherry St, Dunlap · County Executive Keith Cartwright ⓘ source
- Sequatchie County Schools(423) 949-3617878 Cordell Dr, Dunlap · calendars, closings ⓘ source
- Sequatchie County Election Commission(423) 949-243168 Spring St, Dunlap · Mon–Fri 8 AM–4 PM CT · Election Day Tue Nov 3: polls open 9 AM–7 PM CT at your own precinct ⓘ source
- Highway emergency (cell)*THP (*847)Tennessee Highway Patrol ⓘ source
Checked Oct 28, 2026 · official sites only · phone numbers copied from each agency’s own page — tap ⓘ to confirm. In an emergency, call 911.
Area news
Headlines from local outlets · Sequatchie County
The Chamber of Commerce invites the public to a Trail of Tears Commemorative Event on Saturday, Nov. 7, at Coops Creek Commons — Native American drummers and dancers, scholars' talks and a candlelight walk to the courthouse.
Read at The Dunlap-Tribune →Community stakeholders met with the Franklin firm Chandler Thinks to help shape a tourism brand for Dunlap and Sequatchie County; the findings are due later.
Read at The Dunlap-Tribune →Former County Executive and state Rep. Bill Harmon received the Chamber's Howard Hatcher Pillar of the Community Award for helping found the Chamber.
Read at The Dunlap-Tribune →Retired Dunlap educator Sharon Smith Shadrick released “Housedresses,” a 22-poem chapbook about growing up in Dunlap.
Read at The Dunlap-Tribune →
Short summaries in our words — tap through to read the full story at the outlet. All area news → · Outlet requests: [email protected]
A short history
The Sequatchie Valley, a long, straight trough between Walden Ridge and the Cumberland Plateau, was Cherokee country, and the county is named for the valley and for the Cherokee chief Sequachee, whose name is usually linked to a Cherokee word thought to mean “opossum, he grins or runs.” Settlers arrived in 1806 and farmed the valley floor. In November 1838 a Cherokee removal detachment of about 1,000 people under Richard Taylor camped near present-day Dunlap before climbing the plateau on the Hill Road, and the missionary Daniel Butrick recorded the journey in his diary. On December 9, 1857, the General Assembly created Sequatchie County; in January 1858 the new county court chose William Rankin’s farm on Coops Creek for the county seat, renamed Dunlap that year.
Anderson Pike, opened in 1852, carried valley livestock over the mountains toward the railroad in Georgia, and in October 1863, after the Battle of Chickamauga, Confederate Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry struck the Union supply road through the valley and burned hundreds of wagons bound for the besieged army at Chattanooga. The railroad reached the county in 1888, and coal mining began on Fredonia Mountain above Dunlap in 1899; at the foot of the mountain 268 beehive ovens were built to turn the coal into coke for the iron and steel foundries of Chattanooga. The mines and ovens closed in the 1920s, and many families left the valley to find work.
New Deal programs eased the Depression: the Tennessee Valley Authority brought low-cost power, and young men in the National Youth Administration learned construction by building the Dunlap Community Building and four schools around Dunlap and Cagle. William Stone of Delphi (now Daus) and James Standifer of Mount Airy served in Congress in the 1820s and 1830s; Dunlap-born Arthur Thomas Stewart, a prosecutor at the Scopes trial in Dayton, later served in the U.S. Senate, and Raymond H. Cooley of Dunlap received the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Philippines in 1945. Volunteers began clearing the overgrown oven ruins in the mid-1980s, the ovens joined the National Register in 1985, and the Sequatchie Valley Historical Association rebuilt the company commissary as the Coke Ovens Museum.
Towns & communities
- Dunlap — county seat and the county’s only incorporated city; the 1911 courthouse, Coke Ovens Park and museum, Coops Creek Commons and the greenway, Harris Park and Erlanger’s Sequatchie Valley emergency department
- Cagle (community) — on the Cumberland Plateau in the northwest of the county, along TN 8 and TN 111
- Daus (community) — in the valley south of Dunlap; first called Delphi, it grew with the railroad and the coal mines
- Fredonia (community) — on the plateau northwest of Dunlap; the Fredonia Mountain mines fed the Dunlap coke ovens
- Lone Oak (community) — on Walden Ridge at the south end of the county along US 127; many addresses use Signal Mountain, 37377
- Mount Airy (community) — in the valley north of Dunlap at the Bledsoe County line; home of congressman James Standifer
Our place stories in and near Sequatchie County
Go deeper
- Tanasi: the town that named Tennessee — and the TVA waters
- How the World Was Made — a Cherokee account
Neighboring counties: Bledsoe County · Hamilton County · Marion County · All counties →
Official visitor links
Checked Oct 27, 2026 · hours, fees and events live on these pages.
Videos
Sources
Checked Oct 27, 2026 · We summarize; follow these for the full history. No hours or fees on this page — check official sites before you go.